Hi All,Thank you again to everyone that supported Team Twisted Blister and our efforts to help a student in need. Keep your eyes peeled, for we may be doing it all again in January 2011. This time -- running from Miami to Key West!!!
Just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know that I just received word that the funds we raised for the Kenya Education Fund will be used to sponsor Miss Eunice Wangari through 4 years of school at Ndururumo High School. Through our fundraising, Eunice will have all 4 years of school fees covered, books, supplies, exams, room, board, and incidental expenses paid for.
Throughout the 4 years I'll be receiving letters from Eunice and I promise to send them along to you all. In the meantime, I hope you are as proud as I am of both our team and of Eunice as she embarks on this new journey. Thanks for all you support and please pass on the good news and a huge thank you from KEF (and me) for the support.
Hope you are all well!
Daphne
www.kenyaeducationfund.org
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Intrastate Running -- The Update
Friday, March 19, 2010
As you know, if you've been faithfully reading my blog AT ALL (of course you have, right?!?), I ran a crazy-ass team relay across the State of Florida this past November 2009. Many of you kind readers generously donated to our cause -- The Kenya Education Fund. Well, the final tally is in, and below are the results of all our fundraising efforts. I will let Daphne's email do the talking:
Labels: my life, running | 0 comments | |
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This post is a little overdue, but I'm sure you all know by now I'm not very timely with my posts. At the end of February I flew North to visit my friend Amanda. You met her in this post, and you know where she lives from this post. Because I only had 24 hours to experience Chicago during my last trip in August, I went back for the full treatment!
As soon as I landed, Amanda and I were on the go -- straight downtown to the Willis (Sears) Tower. I've been to the top of the Empire State Building, and now this. How exciting!! The Willis Tower is awesome because recently, the SkyDeck was revamped to include clear glass retractable ledges that allow you to step out over the streets of downtown Chicago. Take a look at what I mean:
Depending on how windy The Windy City gets, "The Ledge" is pulled back closer to the building. I found that out of the information posted on the walls, too, I appreciated the information geared toward elementary kids more! I totally wanted to know what people ate for lunch in the 1940s more than I wanted to read about famous Chicagoans. Sorry, but it's true!! Here are some fun facts for your own learning enjoyment:- The Willis Tower is 1,450 feet (443 meters) high - 1,730 feet (520 meters) including twin antenna towers.
- The Skydeck is 1,353 feet (412 meters) above the ground.
- On a clear day, you can see four states - Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. Visibility from the Skydeck is approximately 40-50 miles (65 - 80 kilometers).
- The average sway of the building is approximately 6 inches (152 millimeters) from true center.
Then, we headed back to Chez Amanda, which is fabulous, for some down time and settling in before we headed out to Second City for the evening. Second City is an improv theater company, which has generated so much funny over the years. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Eugene Levy, Bonnie Hunt, Chris Farley, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey -- all alumni of Second City. We saw Studs Terkel's Not Working and we laughed our little tuckus' off!! Audience participation + funny improv comedians/ens = one funny night. I really didn't want the show to end, but maybe that was the Irish coffee and the vodka cranberry talking?
After the show, the girls split off so we could go "dance it out" at The Apartment. And boy did we dance it out, especially after these bad boys:
Mmmmm....Lemon drops!! Warms you up on a cold winter night...and gives you energy to dance, dance all night long!! Which then comes crashing down when you get home at 3 am, and don't wake up until noon? It was snowing when we left the club, and boy, did I miss snow. Florida hasn't been all that Florida-like this winter with temperatures in the low 50s for most of each day, and lows in the high 30s. So, Chicago was not much of a leap, and hey, at least y'all get pretty snowflakes!! Don't mind the whipping, bone-chilling wind, though. Who needs smooth lips and soft hands??
Anyway, I digress. Saturday morning, after a night of debauchery, dancing, and dodging dodgy characters, Amanda and I made breakfast, then headed out to for some classic, clean wintertime fun -- ICE SKATING!!!!
OMG! Good thing I practiced (roller) skating at my birthday party this past summer!! It was great to be outside, and you can't beat $5 for all-day skating. Going in one direction, like a school of fish, gets a little old, but you won't catch me complaining.
After ice skating, we warmed up with a couple of burgers and some fries at a local dive in Hyde Park -- Woodlawn Tap. Because our night out and ice skating took so much out of us, and the Olympics were on TV, Amanda and I couched for the rest of the day. We wanted to rest up for my last day in town.
On my last day in town, Amanda and I checked out the Unitarian Universalist "church" in Hyde Park. Amanda attends Lutheran seminary, which encourages experiencing other types of worship. I attend life, which encourages experiencing, well, life. So in we went.....AND an hour later, out we came feeling uninspired and slightly disappointed. We had lots to discuss. Is worship supposed to consist of reciting ones accomplishments, curriculum vitae, or resume?? Perhaps not. Both of us were left desiring more from the experience.
We spent the rest of the day exploring Wicker Park, where we discovered the healing powers of HOT PUDDING. I kid you not. This place, iCream Cafe, is AMAZING. The deal is like this: first you select whether you want ice cream, frozen yogurt, hot pudding, or rice pudding. THEN you decide what flavor you want your base to be. THEN, you decide if you want a COLOR to be added. You could have green vanilla pudding! Then, like Cold Stone, you decide what extras you want to mix in -- Nutella? Raspberries? Graham crackers? I chose raspberry HOT pudding with nutella. OMG. I thought I had made a mistake because I actually wanted chocolate hot pudding with raspberries and nutella, but NO. It was I who was mistaken. Raspberry hot pudding is AMAZING!! And when the Chicago wind is whipping through the streets, hot pudding is the ticket. If you don't burn the inside of your mouth with it's hotness!
Before I departed for Midway, Amanda and I caught some super delicious, super cheap, superhuge pizza at Piece Brewery & Pizzaria where we watched the first two periods of the hot action gold medal hockey game between the US and Canada. I learned of our unfortunate loss, and Canada's glorious win while waiting in the security checkpoint line at the airport terminal.
I had an awesome weekend tooling around town with Amanda and staying at Amanda's fantastic urban pad. Thank you, darling, for showing this gal a great time and for being such a generous hostess. There were no towel animals, but clearly, that did not detract from my enjoyment of the weekend. You did such a great job, I will abuse you for another weekend visit before you leave seminary!!!
Labels: Chicago, my life, travels | 0 comments | |
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